Ah Mr Angry the artiste formerly known as Tonnee. You are at it again. There we were having a perfectly reasonable exchange of messages on the board and you come along full of your usual abuse. Tell you what why don't I just give you my address and you can come round and throw stones at my windows! You are one sad guy.

Don't fight, Angry and Delilah, you're both on the side of the lady's dignity.

Perhaps my faint recollections of Bailey's some ten years earlier than you, in the time of the great lizards, would be of interest.

Funnily enough, I remember the place as down at the Town Hall end. Did it move? In my day, it was fairly cramped, with a reddish floor. The clientele was rather genteel, and no alcohol. I was a bit shy and also found that I had no coordination at all - a lifelong sorrow. It was strictly ballroom, so I couldn't just writhe round my cycle-clips. Why do all women dance so effortlessly?

Stan Henry I remember as shortish; darkish wavy hair; port-wine shirt; tweedy jacket. Did he wear a bow-tie? Avril Elliot was his good-looking girl-friend then . I've come across an article and picture in the Shields Gazette archive with Stan and Avril showing off their swish 1950s flat.

Wasn't Baileys the largest chain of night-clubs in Europe at one time?

Anyway, thank you Meriel Spraggon for being nice to me!

By the way, do bear in mind that in those days, the hit parade was based on SALES OF SHEET MUSIC.

Jerry you are right about Stan and Avril. The Cellar Club was on the other side of Beach Road to the Town Hall but further along. Second block along if I remember rightly. In the summer or if it got to hot they'd open the window which led to the basement area at the front.
Don't worry about me and Mr Angry fighting. Whatever I post - even if it's just general chat about nightclubs - he has to have a go. He thinks I'm a meddling do-gooder ( this is the more repeatable abuse) who lives in a council house at Horsley Hill. He is obsessed with people in council houses who claim benefits. He has got a real problem.

What IS the matter with you. Read back on this thread. We're all having a light hearted chat about night clubs and you have to get involved with your usual abuse ... meddlers, council houses etc etc.
Find another thread to s**g people off please.

WEIRD COINCIDENCE: just after I complained about how women dance effortlessly, unlike myself, I heard the Classic FM bloke blathering that scientists had now discovered that grace and coordination of movement in e.g. dancing is a GENETIC THING. You've either got it or you haven't. He even used the same word 'effortlessly'! That relieves me of a lifetime feeling of inadequacy (about that anyway). The Lord hath spoken through Classic FM.

Mr Angry is, understandably, under a misapprehension. Few people seem aware of the fact that council tenants as a whole pay MORE into government revenues than they receive in housing subsidies. Council tenants are in fact the ONLY GROUP who subsidise the cost of their own social security.

In 2000 the government had £1300 million in council rent surplus. Thus, after deducting £600 million for housing subsidy, they were actually taxing council tenants to the tune of £700 million.

Did Kevin once run a second-floor record shop called 'Stairway to Kevin?'

My daughter Susan and her mate Deborah were regular clubbers in Shields during the early/mid eighties. I was telling her about this thread during our weekly phone call. She said Banwells had such a bad condensation problem that it felt like people were spitting on you. Also mentioned the 10 pence a shot nights when the toilets were a pretty grim sight. WRs she described as a 'shed in the middle of nowhere'
So hi to anyone who remembers her

jase wrote:Can anyone remember "BENSONS" had some great times in there

Aye . Me and a gang of mates used to meet there first call, and usually went back at last orders. They used to have a '1942' games machine in the corner which used to keep me amused.
They had a sh*te footy team mind